One pot tomato and egg rice
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. ‘ Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
Growing up, I ate rice every single night of the week. What we ate with it changed, but the one constant was a bowl of rice.
The call to come to the table for dinner is sik faan, which translates to eat rice. Rice is not thought of as a side or accompaniment at the Cantonese table - it is the main event. This is also the case in many Asian cultures.
Rice is, and has always been, integral to my sense of comfort and nourishment. But after we moved to New York 10 years ago, I was left in the rice wilderness. Feeling unsettled and not knowing how long we would stay, I didn’t invest in any cooking appliances. As a stopgap, I bought a $20 rice cooker on Amazon which took about 45 minutes to cook 2 cups of barely edible rice. Not a good purchase. Just before the pandemic, I purchased a Japanese clay donabe and, for the first time in a long time, I remembered how wonderful perfectly cooked rice is. I thought my rice cooking needs were satisfied for life and from here to eternity, I would only ever use a donabe to cook rice. Turns out I was wrong.
Along came Tatung, with its cute retro design and hallowed reputation as an icon of the Taiwanese Kitchen. Originally introduced in the 1960s, the Tatung is more than a rice cooker. It is popularly considered as an all-in-one solution for many families who do not own stoves or have a small kitchen. In this single appliance, a home cook can steam, braise, simmer, reheat and even make steamed cakes. I also read that it can be used to ferment yoghurt. It can warm food better than a microwave. I have used it to make jook (congee) and savoury rice.
The beauty of the Tatung is its simplicity. There is just a single on-off switch which shuts itself off when the water boils away. It also comes with an ingenious two pot cooking system. The food goes into the inner pot which is then placed into outer pot, which is also where you add some water. Need more cooking time? Just add some more water. You will see how handy this function is for the recipe I am sharing today.
With a small kitchen, I think hard before adding another appliance. But in the two months I have been using it, the Tatung rice cooker and steamer has become essential to my weeknight cooking. I can quickly throw together one pot meals like the tomato and egg rice dish I’m sharing today and let the steamer do all the hard work for me. And while I still love my donabe, it is hard to pass up the hands-off quality of the Tatung for cooking rice.
TATUNG SPECIAL OFFER
For today’s post, I’ve partnered with Yun Hai Shop, creators of
, who have brought three of the original Tatung colors to the US - pea green (the one above and which I own), vermillion and stainless steel. I own the 6-cup which is perfect for our family of 5. It is also super compact and fits neatly on my kitchen shelf. If you’d like to purchase, I have a special discount code - use HETTY10 for 10% off any Tatung cooker. Purchase here.For those who want to dive deeper into the world of this enchanting appliance, sign-up here to receive information about Tatung’s mini cooking series which will cover the merits of steam cooking, coming out this Fall.
This post is sponsored but I only recommend products that I genuinely own and use. All opinions are my own.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
THINGS TO COOK THIS WEEK
Monday: sweet and sour cauliflower with either rice or noodles
Tuesday: Sheet pan tofu and Brussels sprouts with hoisin tahini sauce
Wednesday: Crunchy noodle and tofu salad (no cooking!)
Thursday: cauliflower, pea and potato curry pie
Friday: Vegan pho with charred broccoli and tofu
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
One pot tomato and egg rice
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
This recipe is designed for the Tatung Electric Rice Cooker and Steamer. Recipe tested in the 6-cup. It’s important to note that a ‘rice cup’ (these come with most rice cookers) is smaller than a regular cup - in fact, it’s about 3/4 cup. For instructions on how to make it in a regular pot, please see below.
Serves 4
Rice
2 rice cups medium grain rice (300g / 10.5 ounces)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
white or black pepper
Tomatoes
350g / 12-ounces tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1-inch (2.5cm) piece ginger, thinly sliced
4 scallions, white and green parts separated and sliced (keep green parts for topping
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Eggs
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Place the tomatoes into a bowl and add the ginger, white parts of the scallions, soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar and salt. Toss to combine.
Place the rice in the inner pot and wash and drain the rice 3 times, until the water runs clear. Add water until it reaches line 2, and then top the rice with the tomato mixture, making sure that the rice is evenly covered. Place 1 rice cup of water into the outer pot and then place the inner pot into the outer pot. Cover with the lid and press the switch to start cooking.
Meanwhile, add the eggs to a bowl along with salt and whisk until the whites and yolks are completely combined.
As soon as the start button pops up, drizzle the egg over the tomatoes. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the outer pot, cover with lid, and press the switch again.
To serve, place the rice, tomatoes and egg into a bowl - taste, and it you need extra seasoning, add a little salt. Season well with white or black pepper. Top with the green parts of the scallions and serve immediately.
How to cook without rice cooker
Rice
300g (1 ½ cups) medium grain rice
3 cups water
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
white or black pepper
Tomatoes
350g / 12-ounces tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1-inch (2.5cm) piece ginger, thinly sliced
4 scallions, white and green parts separated and sliced (keep green parts for topping)
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Eggs
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Place the tomatoes into a bowl and add the ginger, white parts of the scallions, soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar and salt. Toss to combine.
Place the rice into a medium Dutch oven or heavy based pot. Wash and drain the rice 3 times, until the water runs clear. Add 3 cups of water. Place tomatoes to top of rice. Bring to boil over medium high heat. Cover with lid and bring to the boil (this should take 4-5 minutes, depending upon size of your pot), then reduce heat to medium and cook until the liquid has been absorbed, the tomatoes have completely softened and the rice is cooked, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the eggs to a bowl along with salt and whisk until the whites and yolks are completely combined.
When the rice is cooked, drizzle the egg over the tomatoes, cover with lid and reduce to low heat. Cook until the eggs are set, about 2-4 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
To serve, place the rice, tomatoes and egg into a bowl - taste, and it you need extra seasoning, add a little salt. Season well with white or black pepper. Top with the green parts of the scallions and serve immediately.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Thank you for this recipe, Hetty! I love my Tatung (I have a vermilion one!) and I use it almost every day for making rice, but in the year or so since I bought it from @YunHai, I haven't yet tried making anything else--and will be making tomato egg rice tonight, yay! (Another thing I appreciate about the Tatung is that it's stainless steel rather than having a non-stick coating like all the other electric rice cookers, fwiw)
Delicious! I just did a post on pantry items and how important rice is to me. My mom grew up in Shanghai (not Chinese) and we always had rice! I brought her small rice pot with me to italy after she passed away.